“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] The cleavage between discipline and spontaneity had long existed; given the all-or-nothing attitude of the personality, there was bound to be a swing, a complete swing from one to the other until the personality learned to combine the two and become more thoroughly integrated.

[...] Otherwise there would have been an extremely rigorous personality, with intuition very strong but firmly held at bay; or a highly disorganized spontaneous personality frittering away its energies without direction.

A strong breakthrough was needed if the personality was to develop its potentials. The spontaneous self, relegated to the underground, then used all of its strength and forced the issue through opening up the psychic channels, which are very legitimate, and in the past had been an unsuspected deep portion of Ruburt’s personality. [...]

If the personality settled for less, then, true, the conflict would not have arisen. The conflict would have arisen however in whatever field the personality chose, except for the poetry. [...]

[...] “Besides,” Rob said, “what do we call this new personality?” We knew it was meaningless basically, but we felt we needed a name, a label. And how exactly was this new personality different from Seth? [...] “A neuter personality seems so strange.”

“I told you that Ruburt’s personality acts like a warp in dimensions. [...] The personality in general is formed from components existing in many realities and is an apex point. [...] So Ruburt’s personality … is transparent in that respect.”

The difference in the two personalities was particularly apparent in a recent ESP class session in which Seth was at his jovial best, showing personal interest in each student. [...] After speaking to each student individually for a moment, Seth said with a touch of humor: “I come here, I hope, as an ‘endearing’ personality, with characteristics to which you can relate.

“The Seth portion of me has been intimately connected with you both, and so, in that respect, have I. This is closely related to the definition of a personality energy essence, from which, of course, all personalities spring.”

The professor was intelligent, personable, earnest. [...] But he didn’t want to reconsider or evaluate his preconceived ideas of the nature of personality. He missed an opportunity to broaden his outlook, and, perhaps, to find the kind of evidence that would convince him that human personality was far less limited than he supposed.

Seth began by saying: “Identity is not the same as personality. Personality represents only those aspects of identity that you are able to actualize within three-dimensional existence. … Personality may be molded by circumstances, in your terms, but identity uses the experiences and is not swept willy-nilly.

“You have here [in the session itself] a provocative demonstration of the nature of personality,” he said. “For my personality is not Ruburt’s, nor is his mine. I am not a secondary personality, for instance. [...]

The psychology class was as much interested in Seth’s reality as in the nature of personality, as he well knew. [...] Ruburt’s own personality is in no way threatened by them, and his ego has been carefully coddled and protected. [...] There was no artificial tampering of personality characteristics here. [...]

[...] He is a fully developed personality with a variety of interests: writing, teaching, helping others. [...] He knows how to explain complex theories simply, in person-to-person contact. [...]

[...] Actually what we object to is the conventional idea of a spirit, which is an extension of quite limited ideas of human personality, only projected more or less intact into an afterlife. You can say that Seth is a dramatization of the unconscious or an independent personality. Personally, I don’t see why the statements have to be contradictory. [...]

This book was written by a personality called Seth, who speaks of himself as an “energy personality essence” no longer focused in physical form. [...]

[...] After referring to him cautiously as “a personality,” I feel bound to add that Seth is an astute philosopher and psychologist, deeply knowledgeable in the ways of human personality, and well aware of the triumph and plight of human consciousness.

The fact of this book is proof that the ego does not have the whole kettle of personality to itself, for there is no doubt that it is being produced by some other personality than that of the writer known as Jane Roberts. Since that Jane Roberts has no abilities that are not inherent in the species as a whole, then at the very least it must be admitted that human personality has many more attributes than those usually ascribed to it. [...]

[...] The entity is the overall identity of which his personality is one manifestation — an independent and eternally valid portion. [...] They are not neutral, in that all knowledge or information bears the stamp of the personality who holds it or passes it on.

[...] Nor am I a secondary personality, cleverly trying to undermine a precarious ego. I have seen to it in fact that all portions of Ruburt’s personality are benefited, and their integrity maintained and honored.

Personality is a gestalt of ever-changing perception. [...]

“An energy personality who wishes to become a part of your system does so using this sense. The energy personality first diffuses himself into many parts. [...] The energy of the personality must then be recombined.”

What Seth is saying here is that the inner self uses this sense to initiate the birth of one of its personalities in physical life. It may also have a part to play in some mediumistic activities on the part of the surviving personality who wishes to communicate, and it may be used in out-of-body experiences that involve other than physical reality.

“In the sort of exploration of which I am speaking, the personality attempts to go within itself, to find its way through the veils of adopted characteristics to its own inner identity. [...]

[...] You are still exploring the topmost levels of your personality, and you do not have the benefit of those altered states of consciousness that occur when you look into yourself in the manner I have prescribed.

[...] In this method the impetus comes from survival personalities, acting directly through the physical mechanism of the most sensitive person at the table.

[...] There are other methods that are also used by surviving personalities. (Pause.) Such objects may be moved without the help of any survival personality however, by the concentrated focus of psychic energy on the part of one or several individuals.

[...] In this method detailed above, there is cooperation between a survival personality and the person who is the operating sensitive. [...]

[...] (Pause.) There are survival personalities who help you. [...]

In order to rationalize, this personality and all personalities, to give to the present identity a more or less logical explanation for a symptom that is of past origin, the personality will bring forth an actual incident which can then be pointed at by the personal subconscious as a scapegoat.

[...] And despite our anxious Ruburt’s furious attempts to block me, I will indeed say that the person who was once betrayed by the personality involved was the present father of the personality, and he knows it—

The incident, the handy incident which gave rise, or rather the incident which allowed the personality to project the symptom finally, in this instance occurred on a Saturday afternoon, and is not remembered consciously by the personality (Louie), and was not known to anyone else.

If this is realized then the personality will not feel smothered. [...] He does not owe the father any more than that, and to seek the father’s pleasure superficially, or to try to please the father in fields where he has no interest, will not lead either to personal development or success, and will not help the father in any way.

These must be understood not as something apart from the personality, but as a part of the changing personality. [...] Often, they serve temporary functions, leading the personality from other more severe areas of difficulty. [...] I am saying that it is a part of the action of which any personality is composed, and, therefore, it is purposeful and cannot be considered as an alien force that attacks the individual from without.

We are also helped, however, by several characteristics of the personality, in that it is ever-changing, and its flexibility will be of benefit. [...] It must be seen by the personality that an impeding action is a hardship on the whole structure and that this particular part of the self is not basic to the original personality. [...]

The whole focus of a personality can change from constructive areas to a concentration of main energies in the area of the illness. [...] If the old unifying system of personality has broken down, the illness, serving as a makeshift, temporary emergency measure may hold the integrity of the personality intact until a new constructive, unifying principle replaces the original.

Illnesses can be seen as impeding actions representing actual blockages of energy, action turned into channels that are not to the best interests of the personality. [...] They represent offshoots; not necessarily detrimental in themselves, except when viewed from the standpoint of other actions that form the personality framework. [...]

Now regardless of the nature of our sessions, their legitimacy and my own reality, only certain peculiarly gifted personalities would be able to make consistent contact, to obtain such information over a period of time. Only a certain kind of personality could find balance between spontaneity and discipline. [...] A personality embarking upon such pursuits had to allow for various emotional and psychic elements from early childhood.

[...] No personality chooses a life situation of illness. [...]

[...] In entire life situations—I am speaking in terms of a lifelong illness now—the illness is not predetermined by the personality to last the length of the life. [...]

[...] There are usually several different solutions or contexts within which the personality can find the solution. [...]

[...] Each person forms his or her own reality, and yet that personal reality must also be shared with others, and must be affected by the reality of others….

[...] Each person may react to the seasons in a very personalized manner, and yet you all share those natural events. [...]

When I say that a person misinterprets sense data, I mean that the fine balance between mind and matter becomes overstrained in one direction. [...] If in the middle of the night, and fully awake, you believe it is sunrise in physical terms, and cannot differentiate between your personal reality and the physical one, then that balance is disturbed.

[...] [See my opening notes for Session 814.] The 812th session was held following an encounter Jane and I had with an unexpected visitor, although these excerpts aren’t personal at all. [...]

[...] It is simply a well-specialized part of the personality, fully equipped to operate under certain circumstances²¹ … When those conditions no longer exist [after “death”], then other layers of the self take over the dominant position, and the personality realigns its psychological components. [...] The survival or nonphysical personality has somewhat the same relationship to the ego as the dreaming personality has to it in physical life.

When communication takes place between a survival personality and one who exists within the physical system, this involves a reshuffling on the part of the survival personality, where the ego is momentarily given greater reign … If this was not done, then in most cases communication would not be possible, just because the survival personality would have such difficulty impressing the personality who was still ego-oriented within the physical system.

The nonphysical personality does not think in terms of words, but experiences concepts in a much more direct manner. This sort of thing simply could not be understood by the physically focused individual … The survival personality’s inner self gives this reassembled ego ideas in the same way that, often, the subconscious gives the ego concepts in physical existence. [...] When that person is trained along these lines, however [as Ruburt is], he or she helps in this process, and a psychological framework, like a bridge,²² is erected that serves to connect the two personalities.

[...] She calls the conscious self the “focus personality,” for instance, since it’s focused in this physical [camouflage] reality. The focus personality is composed of aspects of the “source self” [or entity]. [...] To Jane, Seth is a ‘personagram” — an actual personality formed in the psyche at the intersection point of the focus personality with another aspect.

Emotions take up a certain amount of what we call psychic space within the personality’s awareness. [...] Intense emotions within the dream state are experienced as present time, and the personality moves easily through these emotional intensities without experiencing the sense of passing time, although any given dream may contain within it its own time element.

It would seem to be that the waking personality could learn much from his sleeping counterpart, and this is indeed the case. Theoretically speaking, and in theory only, anything that a personality can do or achieve in the sleeping state, he can do and achieve in the waking state. [...]

The sleeping personality is as close to the inner self as you will come in this existence, for here the personality is soon free of the camouflage concerns with which it must be involved in the waking condition.

In the sleeping state we see the personality as it is in operation. [...] Our friend, the Jesuit, will do well to read our dream material, for dreams are a reflection of the needs of a personality and of the abilities. [...]

[...] Ruburt’s personality has held itself in excellent bonds, being flexible, and it is this flexibility that is extremely important. It is this flexibility, in both of your personality patterns, that gives us needed strength and balance, and I am speaking now of a subconscious flexibility, basic to your personalities.

[...] Therefore, when such a rigid, psychotic personality suddenly discovers a way for release through opening the subconscious, then the rigid rock at its core explodes into a lava of uncontrollable fantasy; and the terror at the base of such a personality is then externalized, and the individual forced to face under the worst possible conditions, those personal disruptions buried for so long.

[...] The libido does not originate in the individual subconscious of the present personality. It originates instead in the energy of the entity and inner self, and is directed by means of the inner senses, outward so to speak, through the deeper layers of the individual subconscious mind, then through the outer or personal layers.

[...] I am not, as I believe I have mentioned, a secondary or split personality of Ruburt’s. For example, I am not a conglomeration of male tendencies that have collected themselves into a subsidiary personality that struggles for recognition or release.

[...] The whole personality who left is aware of the situation, but he is not vitally concerned. Your father began in this life as a whole personality. [...]

[...] Characteristics now being shown impeded the progress of the whole personality to which she is attached. The whole personality has to work these characteristics out in physical terms in order to discover through direct experience where they would lead.

The whole personality is a stubborn one, and had to learn in this manner. The vitality of the fragment personality but hints at the overall vitality of the whole self involved.

[...] These characteristics have in other lives held the personality back. Now the personality will realize the detrimental nature, and has purged itself, so to speak.

(3:54.) It is futile to tell such a person that he or she can not, or must not, commit suicide — and indeed, such a procedure can be quite dangerous, hardening the person’s leaning toward a death decision. The idea of making choices should be stressed: to live or to die is indeed each person’s choice.

Often other people can make some small, seemingly innocuous comment that suddenly opens the disturbed person’s mind to new possibilities. Because the entire mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual portions of the self are always stimulated to seek further growth and development and satisfaction, then it is quite possible for the mind to seize upon even the smallest event that will spontaneously release the person at least momentarily from depression, or even despair.

It is also true that persons in ordinary good health who often contemplate suicide have already closed themselves away from the world to an important extent. [...] If you are such a person, however, there are also other steps that you can take. [...]

(Long pause.) If you are a person who contemplates suicide often, you should indeed talk to a confidante about your problem.

[...] The session began as usual; Seth said that the other personality was also involved. After first break, before session was to resume, I felt the pyramid effect that usually signals the other personality. [...] Then, o.k., and the other personality began to speak. [...] But as personality spoke, definitely deepened.

[...] Earlier I thought of just yelling out to the personality, look forget it; but couldn’t find vocal chords or something; the personality was using them. So this time “I” found myself, pulled myself together, briefly found voice while personality was silent and just as I was seeing the giant face peer down over me, at pyramid top, at me, and room. [...]

[...] So perhaps will have more assurance, knowing there is a way out when I want it; experienced no difficulty from personality, or pressure to continue despite my wishes. Don’t believe personality understood experience was unpleasant; or for that matter that such terms had any particular meaning for it. [...]

([We checked notes after next break.] When personality compared physical reality with children playing with [physical] blocks, he made a remark about a giant peering through the window at the child’s play; and... [...]

[...] The deepest needs and desires of the personality had to be aroused and deeply involved in an endeavor that would allow the personality to use its full strength in a focused and emotionally intense manner.

[...] Even the early environment, so abhorred by the ego, were chosen in order to deepen the desire for truth and to force the personality to face the issues of life and death, evil and goodness, full face. Ruburt’s ego would have avoided the questions and taken the easy road, and this easy road would not have developed the full potentials that were necessary if the personality were to use its creative and intuitional abilities in any important manner.

Were I only his personality’s method of gaining revelationary knowledge (pause), then he should be content with that, recognizing his need of me in that endeavor. [...] Any personality has a psychological makeup, whether or not they are equipped with physical form, and I am a teacher.

Neither of you realize the strength of the abilities as yet, and the need for forging a strong personality who could learn to handle them wisely, and hold its own while using them. [...] When it was assured that this was the mission for which the personality had waited, and only when it was positive, did it free its protective hold and give its blessings.

[...] He will be drawing energy from this other personality. [...] Later if the process is continued, you will make valid contact with the personality for whom Adam now stands. This personality will then speak, communicate through Adam. Adam will then take on the characteristics of that other personality. He will still not be that personality. He will indeed be the psychological bridge, the psychological framework, structure and image through which that personality can communicate. [...]

[...] you had a body consciousness of a protective nature, but this was only one portion of an entire personality who has yet to appear. [...] The bridge framework takes exercise, understanding, and knowledge on both of your parts, therefore there would be no communication of a strong valid nature until your personality is able to maintain it, for the bridge will not be strong enough to hold. Otherwise there would be too many implications and personality difficulties that could arise. [...]

[...] Therefore when I tell you that this other personality behind Adam may be a future self of your own, I am in no way telling you that this personality is a part of your personality structure as you think of it, or as your psychologists think of it. [...]

[...] This personality will form a bridge in the same way that you do. [...] But the structure is not the other personality.

He has been reading various sections of the material, including portions having to do with the ego, personality and action, and you see attempted to set himself aside from the action in which his whole personality was intimately involved. [...]

One portion of the personality therefore set itself aside and therefore was unable to use the abilities and energies inherent in the personality as a whole, constructively; and erecting barriers in one respect, the barriers were erected in all important regards.

[...] (Long pause.) Whenever the ego gains overcontrol, or sets itself up to oppose deep and basic action within the whole personality, then in doing so it also blocks to some considerable extent the passage or use of the whole personality’s vital energy.

[...] Jane’s voice still persisted in the light, gentle, almost lilting quality, quite different from the usual deeper Seth voice.) The Seth personality has been an intermediary, and a legitimate one. (Pause.) The information already given to you regarding the nature of personality gestalts should make this development seem indeed a fitting one.